Nuclear Health and Safety

Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO investigated potential asbestos exposure problems at the Department of Energy's (DOE) Hanford site in Richland, Washington (DOE/RL), focusing on the activities of the: (1) contractor who operated the site's tank farms until June 1987; and (2) current contractor.

GAO found that the original contractor: (1) performed four asbestos removal and repair jobs in 1987; (2) did not provide employee monitoring and supervision for the jobs; (3) did not begin to provide training for such work until April 1987; (4) requested an exemption, which DOE/RL improperly granted, from full compliance with 8 of 14 revised Occupational Health and Safety Administration (OSHA) requirements by the mandated deadline; (5) established an asbestos control plan for implementing the guidelines within 9 months; and (6) did not ensure compliance with the asbestos requirements. GAO also found that the current contractor: (1) did not provide employee monitoring or supervision for the two asbestos removal and repair jobs it performed in 1987; (2) continued to use the first contractor's asbestos control plan when it replaced that contractor; (3) conducted inadequate oversight of asbestos jobs and failed to ensure compliance with safety and health requirements; and (4) plans to improve its operations by providing asbestos medical examinations, clarifying the role of tank-farm operators in assisting asbestos workers, providing employee exposure monitoring, and providing competent supervision of asbestos jobs.

Recommendations

Our recommendations from this work are listed below with a Contact for more information. Status will change from "In process" to "Open," "Closed - implemented," or "Closed - not implemented" based on our follow up work.

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